I think ‘Weekend Post 400.0’ needs to be something spectacular but I’m getting a little ahead of myself. I’ve been busy mining bitcoins¹ and helping my friend grieve after his beloved seagulls were promoted to the top flight (hence the lack of posts).

I get oodles of spam about LIMESTONE but always ‘legitimate’ requests for original content. I don’t even aggregate/archive/curate very well any more given the exigencies of work, etc. I also have a BUSY fall travel schedule (most for work…some for fun) so there’s probably going to be even less posting UNLESS I master the very nifty WordPress app. I could always cave and just post via Twitter and Instagram but I love words². The other option is to ask my intern to ghost post.

I also have a mountain of archived posts from the original blogger site dated 2000 (17 years) that I’d like to reintroduce (where’s Darnell the intern?). It’s really embarrassing to read those posts now, but history happened, and there’s no point in discarding the influence of those more primitive observations.

I always get lyrics stuck in my head and this morning it’s been this lil’ ditty by Boxer Rebellion:

Maybe there’s no use
In things being like they used to
And maybe there’s no use
In the way it was before

And if I found time
We’d go away with your way
And if we found time
I’d want it more and more

I think it fits a recurring theme. Anyway, I like to get up really early on the weekends when the day is fresh. The fall is my favorite and it’s always best when you can open the windows and wrap yourself in that crispy autumn air with a cup of coffee. I’m also finicky about my desk, and after many years of waiting, I finally peck at the keyboard from an Eames desk. In the left corner there’s a cluster of objects, the only accoutrements to adorn the surface. My favorite object is stoneware pottery, wood-fired and handcrafted, by the monks at St. Joseph’s Abbey. The books are always clustered by theme– religious (e.g. The World’s Last Night), historical (e.g. Churchill War Rooms), and fiction (e.g. Men Without Women). In regards to the latter, finished it a couple of weeks ago, and since I’m so fond of mysteries I’ll let my half-dozen subscribers guess which short story was my favorite (hint: helps if you know something about António de Oliveira Salazar).

How about the former (clever, clever, clever)? I just completed an online course from Hillsdale College on C.S. Lewis (Writings and Significance). IF you understand the permanent things, check out Hillsdale College. At this point, I fancy myself Guy Montag, and I’m pretty unapologetic about that (there’s a battle ahead)…so go ahead and leave that bust of General John Burgoyne on your desk…I won’t dox you or report you on Twitter.

I was at the bookstore this weekend and I love the ‘trending’ shelf because it quickly gives you a pulse of the national mood (this saxophone from Against All Odds is really distracting). If you’ve perused this site for 5 minutes or 17 years you’ll know I have a penchant for dystopia, and these days Sinclair Lewis and George Orwell are representatives of the genre du jour (blah, blah, blah). The shelf was full of survival guides and freshly printed copies of 1984, Animal Farm and It Can’t Happen Here. Here’s the thing about the permanent things³…

“Monarchy is not oppressive if the king and the people are working for a common goal under a common law and share a common dignity. But if the power elite, whether king, voting majority, or media elite cease to believe in an objective Tao, as is clearly the case in our society, then they become Controllers, Conditioners, and social engineers, and the patients become the controlled. Propaganda replaces propagation. Propagation is “old birds teaching young birds to fly.” Propaganda is programming parrots. Propagation is the transmission of tradition. Propaganda is the invention of innovation. Which of the two is piped into our brains daily by our media?

This new class of Innovators, the Tao-less Conditioners, will themselves be motivated in their social engineering, but not by the Tao, which is supernatural and eternal, a “permanent thing”. Instead, they will be motivated by their natural impulses, which are nonpermanent things: their heredity and environment, especially their environment, especially fashionable opinions. This means they will be motivated by Nature, not by the “permanent things”, which are supernatural.”

I’m ending my post because my diminutive coffee just ran out and the desire to cycle for more caffeine (petrol) is a good motivation, BUT I’m ending with some more lyrics:

Ghosts appear and fade away
Ghosts appear and fade away
Ghosts appear and fade away

Colin Hay was just at the Ridgefield Playhouse.

¹I’m also trying to create Satoshi Nakamoto’s likeness in Playmobil. It’s a bit of a guess.
²If you like words, you should watch Ozark on NETFLIX
³C.S. Lewis for the Third Millennium by Peter Kreeft

Related
(1) Mr. Plinkett’s Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull Review (YouTube)
(2) Guinness drought to continue (The Royal Gazette)